


If Wishes Were Fishes

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 11:26:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13099104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: Prompt Fill #!7: Missing





	If Wishes Were Fishes

 

She’d thought things were going so well. Despite Hiravias’ clear disdain for their intrusion into the Engwithan ruins, he hadn’t more than grumbled since they snuck in the back of Clîaban Rilag. Tavi figured her promise to mess things up as little as possible helped there. They also hadn’t fought anything more difficult than a handful of swampy oozes and maybe a troll or two. While trolls weren’t easy to kill, with the six of them working together, the things weren’t a terrible challenge, either.

The first group of druids they encountered, however, proved to be a tad _beyond_ challenging. Spells flying every which way, people being paralyzed, petrified, or simply knocked off their feet, and Tavi stepped smack on an acid trap as she charged the man who looked like the leader.

 _Fuck, fuck_ , _**fuck**_ , she swore inwardly, feeling it eat into her boots as she slashed the druid across the chest. She’d really liked those boots. They were comfortable, they were enchanted, they were a trophy from a mercenary who’d laughed at the idea of falling to her. She’d had them for _years_. And now the enchantment was destroyed, and the leather was following close behind, so she may have decapitated the snarling, half-feral human with slightly more ferocity than necessary. She heard Aloth yelp and Sagani swear as she swiveled to find a new target .

“Duck!” Kana hollered from behind her as she toyed with checking on them first, and Tavi instinctively complied, crouching low as one of the wurms he’d summoned zoomed overhead. It swooped toward the pŵgra Tavi had been targeting, and she raised one sabre in thanks to Kana as she charged after it.

The fight wasn’t long, but it was the first of several close in a row. The only real breather they got before descending into the lower level was after that fight. Tavi took a few minutes to swap out her boots and let everyone catch their breath. But just a few minutes. Partially because of her promise to Hiravias, partially because  it was creepy in here, she wanted to hurry up and be done. So they pushed on, until they’d made their way down the long, crumbling staircase to the second level. At that point, Edér and Aloth ganged up on her.

“We need a longer break, Tavi,” Edér said, leaning against the wall and raking one hand through his hair. “Prob’ly not a good idea to go chargin’ through the rest of this place with wild abandon.”

“Especially since we don’t know what we’re going to find,” Aloth added, twisting one of his rings back and forth. “Better to be prepared.”

“Fine, fine,” Tavi sighed. They were right, and she knew it. No point in getting someone hurt or killed because she had the heebie jeebies. “Half an hour good enough?”

Five nods and a handful of affirmative mumbling answered her, so she plunked down on the nearest rock that wasn’t covered in slime. “Okay, then, half an hour. Then we keep moving.”

None of them scattered all that far, just enough to do their own thing. Except for Aloth, who sat next to Tavi and shot a questioning look at her  rapidly bouncing knee.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, carefully setting his grimoire on the floor.

“What makes you think somethin’s wrong, city slicker?” she countered, trying not to dwell on how close their hands were, sitting like this. If she tipped hers back just a little, their knuckles would brush, and- _Stop it, Tavi_. She still remembered Brackenbury; his hand in hers, cool but clammy at memories he didn’t want to revisit, smooth under her callouses, clinging with a strength born of desperation to the tether she provided. _”It’s going to be alright...” **I said stop it.**_

“You seem on edge, for one,” Aloth shrugged, hand shifting away as he moved  to play with his ring again. “Which is rare. Either because you’re rarely on edge or because you rarely show it. Whichever it is, the fact you’re showing it now makes me think it’s worse than usual. Also, you’re in a hurry.”

“I just wanna get out of here before Hiravias decides to cut our throats in our sleep for trespassing,” she said evasively, looking further down the passageway rather than meet his gaze.

“Tavi.” There was a very clear request for the truth in the way he said her name. (Impressive for someone who’d only recently started using it instead of _Watcher_ to address her)

Tavi sighed, picked at a hangnail, and finally looked Aloth square in the eye.  “This place gives me the creeps.”

He raised an eyebrow but was kind enough not to laugh, which she appreciated. “The creeps?”

“Yeah. You know...” She huffed out another sigh. “Call it a gut feeling, I guess. Somethin’s gonna go wrong.”

Rather than dismiss the notion, Aloth half-nodded, briefly biting his lower lip in thought. (which she really wished he wouldn’t do, it was so. damn. _distracting_.)  “Given where we are, and why we’re here, that is a distinct possibility.” He flashed her a smile. (which she wished he’d do more. Genuine smiles from him were rarer than gemstones and just as precious) “However, I trust you to get us through any complications that may arise.”

“Aw, gee, thanks.” Tavi grinned and bumped her shoulder against his.  “Your confidence is inspirin’.” It was, more than she’d ever let on. “There’s six of us; we can handle pretty much anything, right? ‘Side from Edér’s snorin’, I mean.”

“I heard that!” Edér protested good-naturedly, and both elves smiled.

“Doesn’t make it less true!” Tavi countered, cracking her knuckles. “You think it’s just the Watcher shit keepin’ me awake at night?”

“You’re still having trouble with _that_?” Aloth murmured, and Tavi grimaced as she nodded.

“Yeah. I get the feelin’ all of that’s gonna be around ‘til I figure out what the Leaden Key’s up to and maybe get their leader guy to fix me.” She sighed. “Wish I could  find a member to interrogate.... ‘Course, they seem to work in pretty isolated cells, according to Lady Webb, so I guess that wouldn’t do much good.”

“Mm.” Aloth nodded sympathetically, gaze tracing the patterned stonework on the floor. “You can always run ideas and theories by me, if you wish. I’ll offer what help I can.”

“‘Preciate that.” Tavi smiled. They lapsed into silence for a minute or two, and she let  her gaze drift to the huge door barring the main hallway. “So... whaddya think’s back there?”

The question sparked a twenty minute bullshit session where the group offered ideas, talked over each other, and in some cases argued quite passionately for why they were right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

None of them were right. Hiravias was closest, which wasn’t really a surprise, but no one managed to guess what this level contained.

Of course, glowing purple energy-being wearing adra armor was not something any of them could have guessed, and the creation chambers for said creatures were even lower on the list.

“Kana, _**focus**_!” Tavi hollered as she threw herself against the shield of one particularly determined purple...thing to distract it from skewering him.

Kana jolted and ducked to the side with a mumbled apology, pulling his attention away from the inscribed walls and back to the fight. Part of Tavi wanted to give him an earful, but she was just a little busy at the moment. Whatever the energy-things were made out of, they were tough as shit to kill. And thanks to the layout of Clîaban Rilag, they had to fight through three rooms worth of the things, due to being spotted in doorways, and another couple rooms with more run of the mill spectres and phantoms(and one particularly mean will o’wisp) before they got a break.

The timing was good; Tavi had a cut over her eye that was bleeding enough to obscure her vision, and Hiravias had a dislocated shoulder that needed fixing before they could go any further.

“Here.” Edér sat next to Tavi on the ledge she’d claimed and handed her a pad semi-neatly folded cloth. “Can’t have out illustrious leader  bein’ blind in one eye.”

“Heh, thanks.” Tavi took the cloth and pressed it to the cut, wiping the trickling blood away with her sleeve. “How’re you doin’?”

“You mean about my brother?” He shrugged. “Better’n I thought I would be. Still wish I could get answers, but....” he exhaled a half-laughing breath through his nose. “If wishes were fishes we’d never go hungry, right?”

She laughed. “Yep. I really do wish I’d been able to help more-”

Edér waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. You did what you could. Most I can ask of ya.”

“Alright then.” Tavi hesitantly lifted the cloth, but hastily pressed it back at a fresh rush of blood. “I know how that feels, wanting answers. I got some questions of my own that have been danglin’ a few decades.”

“That sounds like backstory,” Edér teased, nudging her shoulder. “You haven’t  ‘zactly been forth-comin’ with yours.”

“I told Aloth,” she protested, glancing toward the wizard.

“Yeah, but you’re sweet on him, so it doesn’t count,” Edér countered, grinning.

“I am n- That’s rid- Oh, who the fuck asked you?” Tavi groused. _Auroch’s shadow, am I really that obvious?_  “I think you’ve been hit in the head too much, Teylecg.”

He just laughed and was kind enough to change the subject. “Y’know, the bleedin’s prob’ly stopped by now.”

This time when she cautiously peeled away the cloth, there was no fresh trickle of blood. “How’s it look?”

“Ugly, but scabbed over,” Edér said. “Which is kinda the nature of head wounds, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Tavi folded the cloth over, dampened it with her waterskin, and gingerly cleaned away some of the blood that streaked her skin before turning her attention to the group. “Everyone ready to move?”

She got three yeses as Hiravias rolled his shoulder and Sagani tossed Itumaak one last scrap of meat. Conspicuously absent, one pleasantly deep baritone. 

Tavi frowned and looked around the chamber. Equally absent, said baritone’s owner. “Where’s Kana?” Everyone shrugged ignorance and she fought the urge to swear. “When’s the last time anyone saw him?”

No one could swear to seeing him after the second fight with those purple energy-beings.

“Copperfucking....” Tavi growled, cracking her knuckles irritably. “How the _**fuck**_ do you lose an _aumaua_?!”

“I can think of a few ways,” Sagani muttered. “Got hurt an’ we didn’t notice, traps... This particular aumaua, _distracted by something historical and shiny_ is also an option.”

Under other circumstances, Tavi would have laughed. But faced with the necessity of spending more time in here for a search party, she just huffed in frustration and turned back to the door they’d come through. “C’mon, let’s go find him.”

Fortunately, for both her sake and his, Kana was not hard to find. Sagani had been right--on two counts, it turned out. They found Kana back in one of the first rooms where they’d fought the purple things, staring at a wall with the dedication of a child studying for a test.

“Kana!” Tavi snapped, breaking his reverie. “What the fuck?”

Kana smiled sheepishly and brushed his fingers over the carved script. “Sorry, are we ready to move on?”

“We’ve been moved on for ten fucking minutes,” Tavi replied, letting her irritation bleed into her voice. “We had to come back ‘cause we realized we were _missing someone_.”

“I am sorry,” he said contritely. “I stepped in a trap with some sort of paralysis enchantment toward the end of our fight, and started reading the wall as I waited for it to wear off. It’s so fascinating, I suppose I forgot to stop once I was free. This is an older version of the Glanfathan language than I’m used to, so it took some extra concentration to read. I must have gotten so absorbed in what I was doing, I didn’t even notice how much you had moved on.”

“Quite a bit,” Tavi said, sidling close enough to reach up and lightly swat the back of his head (well, near as she could reach). “That’s for scarin’ me. Didja learn anything useful?”

“A few things,” Kana nodded, bearing still apologetic. “Those things we fought-” he gestured to one of the collapsed suits of armor-- “they’re called animats. They were created by binding the souls of loyal warriors to this place and their armor.”

Behind her, Hiravias let out a hissing breath, and Tavi winced. “Good to know what they are, even if hopefully we won’t have to fight any more of ‘em.” She twirled the heavily engraved key she’d found in the last room of phantoms once it was clear. “I’ll bet whatever the Leaden Key was after down here is behind the door this unlocks. Let’s find out, shall we?”

It wasn’t as easy as all that, of course. The central ring of the level was lousy with hostile spirits, phantoms, and spectres. In keeping with his apology, Kana didn’t wander off again, though Tavi did catch his eyes lingering on various aspects of the ruin.

“I swear, it’s like herding a child through a sweet shop,” she teased, tugging his arm so he’d follow her toward the large ornate door she _hoped_ was their goal.  “Focus, Kana. ‘Less you want Hiravias t’ kill you in your sleep.”

He chuckled. “That would be an ignoble end to my quest; murdered by a companion for not respecting his culture.”

“Right, best to avoid that.” Tavi slid the key into the lock. It clicked and turned, and the door ground open. “Look, Hiravias, you won’t have to murder us. We’ll be outta here in just a few minutes.”

“Hopefully,” he hinted darkly.

“We will, don’t worry.” She led the way up the flight of stairs behind the door, somehow not at all surprised to find another of the towering machines like the one at Cilant Lîs and atop Heritage Hill. The ashy, petrified remains that stood nearby were disturbingly reminiscent of the former, and yet Tavi still felt drawn to reach out and touch them. Faint wisps of the soul still lingered. Maybe she could get some answers-

The memory snared her before she’d finished forming the thought and dragged her under. The sense of duty, purpose, the belief--firm and unshaken--that this sacrifice was in service to the gods. And then came the pain, and the machine spun to life and it felt like a searing knife slid between ligaments and bone in answer. Everything blurred white until she found herself kneeling on the floor and gasping for air. The vision she’d just seen swirled together with the bîaŵac  and Heodan and Calisca’s lifeless bodies.

Tavi lowered her head to the tiles floor, fighting a resurgence of the disorientation and panic from when she first noticed _something wasn’t right_. She slowly but surely won, thanks in no small part to the sensation of a large hand resting on her back.

“Are you with us again, Watcher?” Kana asked, concern clear in his voice.

Tavi nodded. “This is... The Leaden Key is doing something with these.” She pointed at the now-dormant apparatus and shuddered slightly at the impressions from her vision. “All over the Dyrwood. I think whatever it is might tie in with the Hollowborn?” She shook her head. “But I’m not sure.”

“It would explain why the Engwithans were willing to sacrifice so many of their best warriors’ souls to guard this place,” Kana comment as he helped her to her feet. “This machine must be incredibly powerful.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” Hiravias muttered.

“We’re not,” Tavi said, brushing hair back from her face. “We’re hauling ass outta here, now we found what we came for. This place still gives me the creeps, and I think that machine is why.” She flashed Kana a grateful smile for the help and glanced at the others as they made their way back out. Unless she was imagining things, relief coupled with unease scuttled across Aloth’s face before his usual calm expression (mask, Tavi thought to herself) returned.

Probably just as uncomfortable down here as I am, she decided. Certainly couldn’t blame him, with the way these ruins and the machine in particular made her skin crawl.

“Come on, let’s stick together,” she said out loud, turning to wink at Kana.  “Wouldn’t want anyone gettin’ lost.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is back a ways on the timeline for Tavi; between close calls 2 and 3 in Third Time’s the Charm, prior to the animancy hearing and all that stuff. So not only are she and Aloth still at the “bury my feelings bc there’s no way they’re reciprocated” stage, she doesn’t even know he’s Leaden Key yet. FUN TIMES.


End file.
